We seem to have experienced all kinds of weather over the past few weeks. After Christmas we had our first snowfall of the year and although it wasn't really deep it was ever so cold and the ice seemed to linger for days.
My greenhouse is still full of lots of plants which I hope will overwinter ok before being planted into the garden in the spring. The dahlias are storing nicely and the fuchsias don't look too bad, however, I have lost a few perennials which obviously didn't like the cold damp environment.
Although I'm not a massive fan of winter weather (I hate to drive anywhere when it is icy or snowy) I do love the beauty it seems to bring to everything it touches. The woods with their bare trees looked as if they belonged in a film set; I find this is the best time of year to wander through the woods and Jess and Finn absolutely love it. M wanted me to take the picture on the right which clearly showed the next big dump of snow we were expecting.
After the snow melted away we were blessed with a few days of mild although cloudy and dreary weather; these I don't mind as we can get out and about and get some jobs done. I was thrilled (and possibly a little too over excited) to see these little gems poking their heads above ground and with flowers too!! These are some of the hundreds of snowdrops I lifted, divided and transplanted over 3 days last year. Now I am really hopeful that we will have snowdrops in more areas throughout the woods and I can't wait.
M and I were on a mission last year to plant daffodils and tulips around the woods so we had some more colour before the weeds grew too tall. Unfortunately we are rubbish at remembering where we planted them (there were a few hundred) and so for the last couple of weeks we have been walking around slowly, examining the ground for signs of life...anywhere. Well again we were astounded and excited to find these daffodils reaching for the skies. These are in a sheltered area at the edge of the trees which probably explains why they have appeared first, but there should be plenty more in the next few weeks and months.
I
managed to move our old PatioGro into the greenhouse this week (after the
snow had gone) and covered it with fleece to try to protect the more
delicate plants. I know I should have done this weeks (or months) ago
but I completely forgot until I noticed some casualties. So now the
delicate plants are under the fleece and I have been through all the
plants and removed any dodgy looking foliage so we'll just have to wait
and see what happens.
M
thinks it looks like a ghost in the greenhouse, I just think the
greenhouse looks very emptyand I can't wait to start filling it in the
spring. Before that of course I need to empty everything out and give it
a good clean. Not my favourite job but it is pretty dirty after a year
and hopefully a clean should keep any diseases at bay.
Sorry to keep talking about the weather - very British I suppose! But, our weather has changed again and gone are the mild days to be replaced with frosty mornings and bright sunny afternoons. One thing I must do is learn to take better photos; however, I couldn't resist trying to capture this wonderful sunrise today.
Our morning walks are a wonderful, relaxing occasion when we take the time to look at nature, examining trees, plants, flowers and of course wildlife. The frost on the ground makes it a refreshing and stimulating vista and one we are definitely not tiring of.
At the end of last year we managed to get our garlic planted in one of the yard baths. Last year's crop were sown in the spring and like onions, we planted them with the tips poking out of the soil. This year we read the instructions fully and planted them much deeper so we're hoping for a much better harvest. The frosts and cold of winter have done their job and the green shoots have now started to appear, 26 in all. This has reminded me that I really must start planning our fruit and veg planting, maybe I'll do that on the next wet day.
M and I have signed up to the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch which takes place next weekend. It only takes one hour of your time, between Sat and Mon, to count some birds so if you are in the UK use the link above to join in.
I just had to share this very short video of a deer near the fence line of our land. We often see them in the morning and had hoped to get a picture of them leaping the fence. It's a shame the morning fog had descended and perhaps we need to adjust the camera angle but it is ever so cute. It made us smile and I hope you enjoy it too.
Well, I hope you all had a wonderful relaxing Christmas and a great start to the New Year. We had a very quiet time which was lovely although the days seemed to fly by. Maybe it's because we're getting older or maybe it's because the build up to Christmas begins earlier each year that the actual day just whizzes past in a bit of a blur. We were hammered by Storm Barbara just before Christmas which was followed very closely by Storm Conor. Hopefully none of you were too badly hit by the storms; outside we were mostly unaffected except for a rotten gatepost which finally succumbed and a couple of uprootedsmall silver birch trees in the woods. Unfortunately the biggest casualty was an electrical box associated with the wind turbine; part of it melted on Christmas Eve and we had to turn off the internal generator box. You can probably tell I'm not really familiar with all the technical terms but essentially we were able to watch the turbine turning merrily away while we couldn't use the electricity. Slightly annoying but hey ho I guess that's just one of those things we'll get sorted sometime soon.
Due to the strong winds we took our Christmas beach walk on the 23rd rather than Christmas day. M took a little video from the top of the sand dunes where we were trying to shelter from the wind but I think it captures the sound of the approaching storm pretty well. Surprisingly we weren't the only crazy people out for a walk and although it was hard going we all (possibly Jess and Finn more) felt thoroughly revitalised and refreshed afterwards.
M's birthday lies between Christmas and New Year and we managed to get a table at our favourite restaurant just a few minutes away. The food is glorious and we have discovered (from previous experience) that we can only handle one course so it was steak for the birthday boy and a very posh chicken burger for me - totally delicious.
New Adventures
After all the fun of Christmas I always find that it is quite cathartic to clear away all the decorations and get the house back to some form of normality and properly cleaned. Thankfully this only normally takes us a few hours so it's not an arduous task but it feels very rewarding.
January can feel like a really frustrating time of year for me, I am desperate to get outside after all the dark evenings and start sowing seeds in anticipation of lighter and warmer spring days. But I have to take a deep breath and acknowledge that it's still too early and too cold for pretty much all seed sowing. So January is the time to open the new diary and look forward to the year ahead. I love the Dairy Diary as it shows each week over 2 pages, has just enough room for me to jot down everything we have been up to and it also has some beautiful weekly recipes. This is where I got the recipe for the totally amazing cheese and chorizo scones, now M's favourite snack.
I will have to content myself with evenings curled up by the fire, catching up on some knitting projects and planning the flower, fruit and veg plots for the year ahead. One of my aims this month is to finish off some of the many half finished projects I have accumulated over the past 10 years. I'm feeling quite chuffed that I managed to finish this scarf which I found at the bottom of a plastic bag. I have no idea when I started this but eventually, it's done - yay!! Now onto the next one.....
I've been following Christine's sockalong and Winwick Mum blog for a while and have been desperately wanting to have a go at knitting some socks; I even got as far as buying some sock wool and circular needles last October. I got this book for Christmas and cannot wait to get started; I just need to keep telling myself that I need to finish off some other items before I begin. Hopefully it won't be too long before I have some photos of socks in progress.
For a long time M has talked of having a go at some wood whittling and given the large amount of wood we have it only took a little nudge to get him going. He got a book on whittling for Christmas and off he went, one little owl and a beautiful tactile letter opener. I suspect this is not the end of this hobby.
As I write this we are in the midst of another horrible storm although for some reason it hasn't got a name. We are being pelted by rain, hail and sleet with 50mph winds and expect to see our first snowfall of the year tomorrow. So as we snuggle down with the fire lit to continue our journey through the Wallander box set I wish you all a very Happy New Year.
About 4 years ago I started to spend a bit more time with mum and during one of my visits I went along to her church craft class. This was my first experience of crochet and although I was pretty rubbish I loved it, as they say, 'I was hooked'. I decided then that I wanted to learn to knit and crochet.
I vaguely remember having knitting lessons at primary school but that was a very long time ago so my first (most recent) attempt at knitting was a children's kit I bought from a bargain book store. It was very cheap and came with chunky wool, big needles and very simple instructions. It had everything I needed and hey presto, I had a knitted a scarf.
As a complete beginner I thought I needed to start from scratch. Although I am not keen to subscribe to magazines there was a new one out called Knit and Stitch which mainly covered knitting and crochet. Each week came with instructions and enough wool to complete 2 squares of a final blanket and cushion set. Off I went on my blanket journey. I still haven't finished all the squares (yet) as it is taking me some time to sew them all together. However, the magazines taught me so much from basic stitches to more complicated designs. It also included a stitch library and a 'how to' section which is great as a reference guide.
As I gained confidence and a love of crochet I started to search through the Internet and came across Lucy's wonderful Attic 24 blog. Her enthusiasm for crochet and colour is so infectious and I couldn't wait to have a go at some of her designs. First I made a Jolly Chunky Bag. I loved all the different bright stripy blankets and so embarked on the Granny Stripe blanket. I probably should have tried a small blanket for my first one but I got a bit carried away and so this one is huge, it is photographed next to a super king size bed (and Jess)!
I really wanted to try and have a go at making some baskets and after a lot of research decided that some thick t-shirt yarn was a great place to start. I don't remember following any kind of pattern but just made it up as I went along. After the round brown basket I had a go at a rectangular one. I also crocheted over some thick wire in the top round of light blue to try to give it some stability and shape. I added a little flower in an attempt to cover up the slanted row increase.
New Crafts
I love trying new crafts and this was my attempt at Tatting. Yes it sounds strange as, to us, Tat is a word used to describe cheap rubbish. I bought this Learn to Tat book which comes with a very handy DVD as it can be a fiddly craft to get started with. I didn't get through the whole book (it wasn't M's favourite DVD to watch!!) but I did manage this tiny butterfly. One day I'll get back to the DVD and try some more designs.
As a child I remember making latch wool rugs with mum, I think every room had a homemade rug in it. I found this gorgeous sunflower kit and just had to make it; once complete mum had to help me with the backing as I couldn't quite get it to sit right.
Last year, before we moved, I spent a delightful day with Emma from Silver Pebble where she taught us (a small group of 4) to make jewellery out of silver clay. It was such fun and yet another craft I would like to indulge more time in.
I'm hoping that in 2017 I will be able to have another go at trying to master some of these crafts and maybe even try something new.
